This isn't meant to be overly serious, so the funnier aspects can shine through without being too harshly analyzed.
Most of this story is hosted on Spacebattle Forums right now, where it sits at somewhere over 50K words currently.
I'll update this fairly frequently until its caught up.
Slight Miscalculation
As Taylor Hebert awoke, her heavily crusted eyes fought against her valiant attempts to find out where she was, and why she felt so... off. The return to consciousness was not a fast one as her senses seeped back into her awareness, one by one. First, she heard the steady beep of a heart monitoring machine. Why would there be... Ah. She must be in the hospital.
She didn't know exactly why she would be there, but her faculties' molasses-like recovery wasn't helping in the slightest. The burning in her nostrils precluded a sudden inhalation of what smelled like oranges and bleach - some kind of generic disinfectant, her brain helpfully provided. Her legs twitched and the rustling of thin cotton sheets that covered her lower half provided further evidence she was in a hospital of some sort, as if the monitor didn't provide enough already.
With a titanic effort, Taylor wrested her eyes open, rapidly blinking away the sudden stinging light and flakes that fell onto her actual eye itself. Sensation also made itself known to her gradually, though with increasing rapidity as the seconds ticked by. Her fingers tingled and slowly grasped themselves into fists; her toes curled and her knees bent slightly; finally, the stinging light faded to a manageable level and Taylor could get an actual look at the room she was in.
Pale white walls, clinical in their sterility, splashed with splotches of color in the form of visitor chairs and a TV. The whiteboard said this was the 30th day of her stay. Well, putting two and two together, if she didn't remember arriving at the hospital or any of her stay, then she had been unconscious for nearly an entire month.
Not including normal hours spent sleeping, that was over 400 hours of time simply wasted. Never to be had again, though she had to wonder if it was really such a huge loss. It was hundreds of hours where she didn't have to look over her shoulder or deal with the utter bullshit that was school life.
Taylor raised her head, noting the stiffness and general weakness she felt from such a simple gesture, and looked around her room. There wasn't much to note, the TV was on mute, nothing new was gleaned from the white board, and there was a strange pale man slumped in one of the guest chairs.
Huh, she wasn't sure how she missed that the first time around. Maybe it was from the sudden revelation of the month-long coma? Who knows.
Her father wasn't here, not that Taylor could blame him. He couldn't possibly spend all of his time here, after all, they certainly couldn't go a month without him working and hope to have a house afterwards. Still, none of that explained the strange person passed out in one of her chairs. She assumed they didn't just let people randomly walk into patients rooms but it could have happened. Nurses were busy people, after all.
She attempted to form words with her mouth, but it was so dry it came out as more like a rasp than intelligible speech. A quick glance showed a cup of water resting by her bed within arms reach - probably had been for just this occasion.
A shaky hand grasped the cup while the other adjusted the straw and she took several gulps before releasing a pleased sigh. Attempt number two at speaking met with much better success, though it still came out a little scratchy.
"Hello?" The silence stretched on after the last vestiges of her greeting fled the room, leaving her in uncomfortable silence. Something was slightly off about the strange man... Taylor couldn't quite put her finger on it, but the more she stared at him the more she realized just how still he was. She couldn't see his chest rising and falling nor see his nostrils flaring or mouth moving as any air passed by. She was contemplating hitting the call button on her newly discovered remote before the stranger's eyes suddenly flashed open, revealing crystal clear red irises.
The crimson orbs swiftly looked about the room before locking onto Taylor. Fighting the urge to shrink back and slide under her covers to make herself smaller, she met his gaze and gave him a small wave. "Ah, hello. My name is Taylor, who might you be?"
A slow blink was her initial response before he opened his mouth. "Huh. I'm not gonna lie, this is possibly the last place I would have expected to wake up."
The young Hebert couldn't help but notice the odd quality of his voice. It was smooth and gravelly at the same time - like a blade that was pitted and scarred, beautiful but worn by its service. "Well I hardly expected to wake up here either, but what makes it so odd? I mean, how did you even wind up in here?"
Taylor sincerely hoped the answer wasn't hardcore drugs, though his appearance was perhaps the opposite of the average Merchant, low-life scum that they were. His teeth were straight and white, though his canines seemed oddly pronounced. His features were fair, and his hair was smooth and silky, stretching down to just below his shoulders. It was brown going on black and seemingly shimmered in the low light the hospital lights provided.
Maybe alcohol? Well, he would hopefully answer the question and she would know.
"Ah, well to be honest I kind of live on my own in a place that is likely... very far from here. And when I woke up again I was expecting it to be because... well I'm not sure what I thought, but waking up in the hospital room of a prepubescent girl was definitely not on my list of top 1000, no that's too low actually, top One MILLION possibilities."
Taylor was oddly offended at being called pubescent, though it wasn't far off the mark. "Hey! I'm 15, you know. Hardly pre-pubescent..."
She wasn't entirely sure why she was so adamant about that, but it seemed important and she didn't really have much else to go on at the moment. Taylor was a little on the thin side and without seeing her height it was an easy mistake, but she was still offended.
The shit-eating grin that suddenly grew on the man's face told her that wasn't the correct course of action. "Oh, please pardon me my dear, I meant to say to the moody pubescent girl I woke up with. I stand corrected and deeply apologize for my most heinous of mistakes. Please, tell me how I might rectify my most horrible of misjudgments."
Much to her chagrin, her cheeks slowly started growing warm from the wordplay and intimation he woke up with her, making it sound more like they both just woke up from a drunken haze than a 30 day coma. "Hey, don't say weird things. Plus you're the one waking up in the room of a young impressionable girl. I mean are you a pedo or something? Couldn't get anywhere people your age so you had to try and snatch up young coma victims?"
Taylor didn't know where this fire was coming from, but he had started something and she intended on following through. His grin told her he wasn't being all too serious, and the slight upturn of her lips told her she was having fun, something quite rare.
With an overdramatic sweep of his hand miming pushing his hair back (there wasn't even a strand out of place to begin with) and that same wide smile he responded. "Oh please, if I wanted to, I could have you eating out of the palm of my hand before days end, or any woman. Can't underestimate these dashing good looks and charming persona! Although, if you are asking, though I abhor the implication, I couldn't possibly say no to a young woman as beautiful as yourself, madam. If I'm not careful I'm afraid it shall be me who is doing the eating!"
The warmth in her cheeks was slowly escalating from a low heat to a raging fire and she couldn't stop it. Though, she wasn't particularly upset as the smile that stretched from ear to ear and adorned her counterpart's face made it clear he was simply having a good time. Taylor found it odd how much faith she was already placing in this strange man - she had literally just met him after waking up from apparently some sort of coma.
A couple of burbling laughs that escaped her, despite her best efforts at stemming them behind her hands, quickly escalated into a full belly laugh that set her whole body aching from the sudden movements. The man also started laughing, though he didn't try to hide his mirth.
Taylor's body was shaking from her sudden bout of laughter for what felt like forever, until finally her breath ran out and she was forced to stop. How long had it been since she was able to just simply... let it all out? Laugh because something was honestly funny instead of because her situation was so poor she could hardly believe it?
"Wooh, This is a great way to wake up. Man, please young lady, tell me your name. I swear I don't know how I wound up here, but I find myself not minding in the slightest." His strange tone, silky with hints of iron, set her at ease.
"My name is Taylor. While I don't have a lot of experience in it, waking up from a coma to be met first by a random stranger has also been better than I thought it would be. Maybe you should try it sometime. Although it hasn't done anything great for my posture, these aches and pains are going to take forever to work out." She was sitting up fully at this point and made a show of rotating her arms and stretching her back from side to side.
He seemed briefly conflicted for some reason before he slowly stood and took a step closer. "Ah, I may be able to help. May I?" He held out a hand.
"Uh, sure. Just don't do anything weird. Or creepy." The man laughed, his fair features growing soft.
"I wouldn't dream of it, young lady." He approached and laid a rather cold hand on her shoulder. The young Hebert was about to protest and ask what exactly he was doing when a sudden deluge of golden light appeared around her, haloing her arms and illuminating her legs under the blanket.
"Woah..." Was all she could say as a pleasant tingling warmth spread from his hand throughout her body. She didn't notice anything right away, other than idly noting the tingling went all the way down to her toes.
"Heh, Woah indeed. Test out your back now, how's it feeling?" Taylor gave it a few reflexive twists and rotations.
"Holy crap! It doesn't hurt at all anymore. What did you do? Are you a cape? Is your power healing, like Panacea? Or is it just a pain nullification? Do I still need to worry about not overdoing it on my back cause the damage is still there I just can't feel it anymore? Also that was really bright. Does that happen every time you use your power?"
Taylor Motormouth Inc. was in full operation, and her cheeks reddened again when she realized what she had done. The man's response was only to laugh.
"Heh, you can sure talk young lady. Ah, I don't know what a 'cape' is, but I've got the magic in me, if you know what I mean. A little healing magic was enough to soothe all the aches and pains, but it also healed the tiny bits of damage that may have occurred while you were... indisposed. It doesn't regenerate lost muscle mass or anything like that, so you still gotta put in the effort if you wanna fill in that frame champ, no shortcuts." As he finished talking he gave me a clap on the shoulder, but apparently wasn't that aware of his strength as he nearly bowled me off the bed.
"Oh shit, sorry about that. Clumsy ol' me forgets how fragile humans are sometimes." Taylor glowed golden again once more, the light suffusing against the white walls reflecting into interesting patterns.
The bruise she was sure was forming as a result immediately ceased hurting and felt as though she hadn't just got slapped. "Well I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'magic' but capes are people with, ya know, superpowers? They've been around for 30 years, I didn't think it was possible to not know about them. Where have you been exactly?"
He took his hand away from where he had healed her again and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Well, believe it or not, I haven't been on a planet in... a very long time. I kinda hid away on a plane I created to uh, not have to deal with people. I'm sure you know how it is, everyone always wants something and it gets old real quick."
Taylor sat and simply stared. Was he crazy? Maybe it really was hardcore drugs and she was just terrible at identifying symptoms... "You made a plane? Like an airplane and hid, with no news or outside contact, for over 30 years? You barely look 20 years old. I find myself disbelieving you right at this very moment, creepy coma patient stalker."
His hand stayed where it was and he closed his eyes, chuckling all the while. "Ehh, no. More like a... plane of existence? I don't have any great examples that you would know of I think, so... It's the kinda place you would need a portal to get to. Make sense now?"
She stared at him for several moments, eyes unblinking.
"Who did you say you were again?"
His awkward movements didn't stop. "Ah, I don't believe I said. You can call me Asteroth! My friends call me Aster, so feel free to call me either."
Taylor narrowed her eyes at him. "It remains to be seen whether you're any friend of mine, Mister."